Biometric Clocking

This is now a popular option, with two main technologies – finger and hand. Each has its pros and cons, which we will advise you on.Neither technology records an employee’s fingerprint or hand (palm) print, so there are no Human Rights issues. Bear in mind that the time taken by an employee to use these technologies (positioning) is longer than with proximity technology – this can affect how many devices are needed when there are larger numbers clocking in/out at the same time. Even so, it is an excellent technology and allows employees to use different terminals (on your network) to clock in or out.

In More Detail

Biometric terminals are an excellent choice where there is a concern that employees may forget their proximity card or key fob, or where there is the risk that, by sharing cards or fobs, employees could be clocking in their colleagues.

There are two main biometric technologies; the fingerprint terminal and hand scanner. Starting with the hand scanner, this is a well established device that has proven itself to be robust and reliable.

It is particularly suited to harsh environments, where the fingerprint terminal may be less reliable, due to excessive dirt or other factors, such as ‘damaged’ skin on the finger.

Having said this, the hand scanner is the least sophisticated device in terms of the features it offers, which tend to be limited to in/out, lunch and breaks. It does not offer the option for an employee to register that they are going off-site (whilst still being clocked in for attendance purposes), nor can it be connected to your fire panel to provide a real-time fire register.

The hand scanner is an ‘off-line’ device, meaning that it does not provide feedback to the employee at point of use. For example, if the employee tries to clock out when they were not already clocked in, they would not be informed of this and might well believe they had made a valid clocking.

Whether this is a concern will depend on your objectives and the device’s lack of sophistication might well be outweighed by the pragmatism that it works well and is ideal for many companies with a workforce that predominately remains on-site and where management does not require real-time feedback.

Fingerprint terminals are more intelligent devices and connect directly to the Captureit database. As such, they are able to provide an automatic fire roll call printout should the fire alarm sound. By connecting to Captureit in real-time, they also provide feedback to the employee at point of clocking, such as informing them they have successfully clocked in, were late, or provide a warning that they have attempted to clock in twice, or have attempted to clock out when already clocked in. Features such as these help minimise employee errors.

A dedicated function key allows employees to indicate if they are going ‘off-site’, whilst keeping the employee clocked in for payment/credit purposes. Should the fire alarm sound, the employee would be shown on the fire register to be clocked in, but currently off-site.

The fingerprint terminal reads the electrical conductivity across the fingerprint and turns this into a unique, encrypted number, which cannot be reverse-engineered into a fingerprint image. The hand scanner works by storing the hand template image as a binary code that cannot be reverse engineered. Neither the hand scanner or fingerprint terminal raise confidentiality or human rights issues. This is because neither record any form of finger or palm image that can be used to identify the individual.

Speed of clocking is an important factor to consider and is an often overlooked aspect of biometric clocking. The elapsed time for an employee to clock is typically six seconds. This takes account of the employee firstly positioning them self at the terminal and then carrying out the required action(s), before moving to one side for the next person to clock. Six seconds equates to circa ten employees per minute being able to clock in or out. If you have a large number clocking in/out, at the same time, then it may be wise to have more than one terminal at each clocking point.

In line with other technologies, biometric terminals can be used in conjunction with all terminals in the Captureit range, including mobile device.

“White Horse Plastics had in place a very old time and attendance system, so explored the marketplace during late 2014 for an updated and easy-to-use system for our 50 plus employees. It was important that the system we chose could grow with us, eliminating the need for further change.

Having looked at three alternatives, although marginally more expensive, Vizual was chosen and installed after a very productive pre-installation scoping day, during which they guided us, very professionally, and made sure everything was documented prior to being signed off in early 2015.

The main drivers were the flexibility to link with our payroll software (Sage) for automatic downloads, thereby removing the need for additional keying, ease-of-use for our staff and the ability for our managers to maintain holidays, peer groups, etc.

When it came to our bespoke programming requirements, Vizual’s down to earth ‘can do’ attitude was so professional and it was a joy to sit down and go through these requirements, with nothing, however small, being a problem for them to deal with.

The installation was trouble free and support, if required, second to none. We are sure that they are a company we can trust and continue to deal with as experts in their field for many years.

To sum up – a very proactive company who we are more than pleased to be working with. We are so glad we made the change and built this new relationship.”

White Horse Plastics Ltd.

“We found ourselves with a decision to make – either upgrade our existing, but aging, T & A system or invest in the more costly option of a new system and a new relationship.

We chose the latter and what a good decision this was.

With over 100 employees across two locations it was essential that our requirements were fully understood and that the transition from our old system went smoothly. Vizual guided us throughout the process, both commercially and technically, and made sure everything was fully documented and signed off before moving to the implementation phase.

From their early engagement at the sales stage through to the diligence of their pre-installation scoping and planning, everything was handled professionally and with integrity. We pushed hard for an early implementation and their team pulled out all the stops to make sure we achieved this.

Our staff find the system really easy-to-use and the decision to delegate day-to-day control to line managers has improved the quality of data, which in turn means that we now spend far less time on administration and in preparing data for our payroll.

Vizual’s after-sales support and ongoing advice has been excellent. We are so pleased to be working with a company we can trust and who are clearly experts in their field.”

FCS Lasermail

“JML’s move from our North London offices to new premises in Chiswick was always going to be a challenge for our workforce. To help address this we decided to move away from our fixed hours contracts to more flexible working for our employees.

Making sure that we made this change work for employees, the company and our customers was vitally important. In working with Vizual we found a valuable business partner, who helped guide us as to best practice and potential pitfalls and even provided us with examples of policies that were proven successes with other companies. The outcome has been excellent. We have a policy that we know will work for all parties – a first-rate result."

JML Group

“Scanstone is a small company of less than 30 employees providing new and refurbished agricultural equipment. A vital aspect of our profitability is being able to accurately monitor our costs in taking on projects.

Prior to installing Capture-it from Vizual, this was a paper-based exercise that was difficult to manage, always retrospective, at risk of error and always a chore for our workforce.

All this has changed. Our labour costs are now always up-to-date, variances to budgets are identified in ‘real-time’, and quotations for new work now reflect known past performance.

The team at Vizual has been exemplary in providing sound advice and outstanding customer support. As a small business, our investment in Capture-it was considered very carefully, but has been proven to be worth every penny and more.”

Scanstone

“YTM is a small company with a turnover of £10m employing 130 people supplying contract furniture into Care homes and hotels. We manufacture on two sites in West Yorkshire and install our furniture nationally.We purchased Vizual in 2015 after requiring a system to capture labour costs on all projects we undertake. We previously had a T&A System but this did not capture the labour time taken on each process of manufacture and for each job that we undertook.

We reviewed the market for the relevant hardware and software to enable us to capture the time and cost of labour employed on each job (and an additional T&A system). In terms of value for money we found Vizual to be the best and it was clearly a tried and tested system with a few years in the marketplace.

We had been offered much more expensive systems that seemed to offer little more than better graphics.

We also needed a system that would directly talk to SAGE200 Job Costing, so we could upload the job details and then download the captured labour data. Vizual worked very well with our SAGE provider to come up with an automated system that worked well.

The implementation went well with a very knowledgeable and helpful support staff. We have found their support to be invaluable going forward, with any issues that have cropped up, as we use and maintain the system.

We are now rolling the system out to our field engineers and fitters for them to capture their time on jobs using mobile phones.

In summary, we have found the system to be best value for money, when compared to some of the more expensive software and hardware in the market and it does what it has promised to do.”

YTM Group

"We do not contact Vizual often, because the system works. However, this year we were given notice by HRMC of a Minimum Wage Audit, which prompted us to check our policies and procedures. Our policy is to pay our 400 stewards a fixed match fee, based on the hours expected for them to fulfil their duties. However, we realised that some stewards sometimes worked beyond the hours required of them, and as such, were at risk of earning at a rate less than the minimum wage.

With ten days to the audit, we asked Vizual to visit us to help ensure that we were compliant. Their response was terrific. They identified our areas of risk and, prior to the audit, made software and reporting changes that now allow us to identify situations where we might be at risk of being non-compliant.

Whilst this action may have been prompted by the audit, we are delighted that we can now easily identify employee’s working ‘beyond the call of duty’ and reward them appropriately."